Plug/socket terminology is not necessarily the same as male/female terminology. The socket can be male, if it is the one with the metal pins. The power connector on the back of a PC is a good example.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_of_connectors_and_fasteners" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_of_connectors_and_faste...</a><p>Of course, people aren't necessarily using the terminology completely correctly as it is.<p>And then there's the connectors on fancy RF equipment that can assume either role!
Oh please do. With something like an audio cable at least there's one end that is purely sticking out and one end that is purely sticking in. But with a lot of other cables there's a mix of inny bits and outy bits and it took me a long time to work out which bit I'm supposed to pay attention to to make the analogy work (the answer is to pay attention to any visible bits that carry a single/power. If this is obvious to you I suspect it was just because of how someone explained it to you, but if you're just brillianter than me then great!).
Such proposals usually start with "self-evident" assertion of harm incorrect terminology causes, but is it actually measurable? Did anyone make research while isolating influence of such things? Sociology is such a shitshow
I grew up with _fiş_ and _priz_. Presumably, they are words that were borrowed in to Turkish from French. To this day, I cannot remember which is which and I do not know the original French spellings. According to Google translate, _fiş_ is "prise de courant" so what the heck is _priz_ then?<p>Anyway, the point is, "male" and "female" made immediate sense. "plug" and "socket" don't seem to be exact analogues. When I think of a socket, I think more of things that are more permanent things like wall sockets or sockets on actual computers etc. Is there any reason to assume that all such things will always be receptacles? When I look at this picture[1], I see a set of "female" sockets next to a "male" socket using the disfavored terminology. As English is my second language, I do not know whether I should refer to the one that is "male" as a plug.<p>Another aversion I have to the general tendency to changing language by decree is the fact that I experienced the linguistic impoverishment visited upon the Turkish language as a result of the 20th century effort to remove words of Arabic and Farsi origin and somehow arrive at a "pure" language. Such efforts rarely lead to where their designers want them to go.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/08/inlet-next-to-outlet.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/08/inlet...</a>
Oh dear. The distinction between sex and gender again.<p>Back in the days of RS232, I owned a cable known as a "gender-bender". This was long before the days of Boy George. It was 8" long, and had a female DB-25 connector on each end. These things were also known as "eight-inch couplers", a term into which you could also read sexual connotations.
Why is male and female terminology bad here? Are we disputing that men have penises and women have vaginas? That doesn’t imply that you can’t have a sex change. Do trans people not generally convert their genitalia to match the destination sex?
Thew fact alone that sex is being put away as "ewwwww" shows where the real problem lies.
Now master and slave was already somewhat ridiculous discussion.
This discussion is really a flag waver, as there is no negative connotation with different sexes.
Usually written by self acclaimed experts.
Are the scare quotes necessary? In this case, they are somewhat misleading, as it's not the industry group (Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance) that called the changes obvious, but rather this particular article.
Well said:<p>"To put it more simply – neutral language is always better for technical terminology, because it’s clearer, more accessible to more people, and includes the people who provide the talent and skills that make industries and technologies work. End of story."
Next up: AI cabling suggested to be sold in multi-packs only, so that you have spares if the first identifies differently to your requirement.<p>Note that we already have 'couplers' that allow 'mating' female-female or male-male cable ends, so I think any argument that it's homophobic language or whatever is on thin ground. Really the only valid (if I can call it that) argument against it is the author's 'eewwww', but.. really?